This tutorial is of my own creation and any resemblance to any other tuts is purely coincidental. This tutorial is for personal use only, using it for monetary gain is against our TOU's. Supplies Needed:

~Gimp (any version will do).

~Love USA FTU scrapkit by Candy's Treats which you can get HERE.

~Tube of choice. I used the artwork of Arthur Crowe, you must have a license to use this art which you can get HERE.

~Template of choice. I used the Boom Boom Template by Brutal Designs which you can get HERE.

~Font of choice. I used Patriot.

Let's get started!!!

1. Open a new layer ( I prefer a large canvas, so I make mine 1050x656). Make your canvas transparent (Layer > Transparency > Color to Alpha).

2. Open template in PSD format, move layers of template around until they are the way you like them.

~Add paper from scrapkit to individual layers of the template (Right click on template layer in layer box > Alpha to Selection > CTRL I > Select paper layer in layer box > Delete).

These are the papers I used:

Paper 1 Paper 3 Paper Red Stripe 3

~I added noise to some of the template layers to make them look glittery (Filters > Noise > RGB Noise).

~I colorized some of the template layers to better match the scrapkit (Colors > Colorize > play with the setting until you get the desired color).

~Add drop shadow to template layers (Filters > Light & Shadow > Drop Shadow).

3. Open tube, add drop shadow.

4. Open and place the following elements:

Star Sprinkle Firework 1 Curly Ribbon Heart 1 Balloon 1 Balloon 3 Star Star 1 USA

~Some of the elements may need to be sized down. Using your scale tool in your tool box adjust the pixel size until element is the correct size~

~Add drop shadow to all elements~

5. Merge Layers (Image > Merge Visible Layers).

6. Crop Image (Image > Autocrop Image).

7. Scale image to desired size (Image > Scale Image).

8. Add copyright info and name

9. Save as .png

ALL DONE!!!!!!!!!!